This is a sad day indeed.

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Today, the greatest Italian football player of all times, Roberto Baggio, played his last game at the age of 37 years old. The married Buddhist with two daughters began back in -85 when he was only 15 years old in Serie C and have won the European Best Player Award and the FIFA World's Best Player Award back in -93, and he still scores winning goals. Even though many people, Cafú from Brazil, Maldini from Italy, the Italian national team manager Trappatoni, Brescia's manager, and many more have said that he should not quit, and I hope that he will not.

I know he have told the world that he would, and he will probably not be nominated for the Italian squad for Euro 2004(But I can always have my hopes up), I still hope that he will change his mind and continue playing. It is not impossible, because several top Italian teams have requested him to sign a contract but no response so far.

My hopes and prayers with you, Roberto Baggio, and I hope you will do whatever you find best in your heart.

Godspeed

 

Yeah, pretty awesome player in his day.

Sadly most well remembered for his penalty miss in the 1994 (I think it was?) World Cup.

 

Yes, he was a great player in his day. He should have called it a day a few years ago though. He is not fit to play at this level anymore and definitely not for the Italian side.

 

Sarevok, he does not fit in this level? Ihis last season, this one, he have made 6 game-ending goals and 12 goals at total. When he played with the Italian national team this year against Spain he was arguably the best Italian player of the game.
Also, without him, Brescia wouldn't have survived 4 seasons in Serie A. When did he join? Four seasons ago. IMHO, he should be taken out in the Italian squad as a support forward to use when they have a 1 or 2 score lead. He is great both in defence and attack but he can also build an attack all by himself, making him invaluable in the Italian playstyle.


@Morsmodre - Yeah, in 1994. But even though that is his "biggest" game, he was the one that made the two goals in the semi-final against Bulgaria in the 2-0 win and in 1998 against Chile, he made the 2-2 goal on a penalty in the '82 minute and showed that the miss in 1994 was only a temporary failure.

 

He was a great player once, but so was Maradona. Would you select him because of what he once was ? If Italy selects Baggio for Euro 2004, it means that they don't have a suitable replacement, and it also means that they don't have a very bright future ahead of them.

Which is not so odd, since all Italian teams have a tendancy of buying foreign strikers. Their own talents don't get much of a chance that way, which in the long run will come to haunt their national squad.

 

Pac man, I would like to prove you are wrong there. I have here all the strikers in the Italian league, and I will put an '*' whenever they are born in Italy and an '?' whenever I am not sure. I will put two '*' whenever they have ever played a game in the Italian national squad:

AC Milan:
Andrej Shevchenko
**Filippo Inzaghi
Jon Dahl Tomasson
*Marco Borriello
*Allesandro Matri

Ancona:
?Mario Jardel
Goran Pandev
*Corrado Grabbi
?Maurizio Ganz
*Cristian Bucchi

Bologna:
*Fausto Rossini
*Guiseppe Signori
*Claudio Bellucci
Igli Tare
*Francesco Cataldi

Brescia:
Abderazak Jadid
*Filippo Maniero
**Roberto Baggio
*Simone Del Nero
?Raul Gonzales
*Andrea Alberti
Marcus Schopp

Chievo Verona:
*Sergio Pellissier
*Guiseppe Sculli
Carvalho De Olivera Amauri
*Simone Perotta
?Federico Cossato

Empoli:
*Antonio Di Natale
*Francesco Tavano
*Mirco Gasparetto
*Pasquale Foggia
*Tommaso Rocchi
?Iglhi Vanucchi
*Massimiliano Cappelini

Inter Milan:
Mohamed Kallon
Andy van der Meyde
?Julio Ricardo Cruz
?Leite Ricardo Adriano
Alvaro Recoba
Obafemi Martins
**Christian Vieri
Abdulahi Isah Eliawk

Juventus:
*Fabrizio Miccoli
**Alessandro Del Piero
David Trezeguet
**Marco Di Vaio

Lazio:
Claudio Lopez
*Bernardo Corradi
*Roberto Muzzi
*Simone Inzaghi
?Alfonso Delgado

Lecce:
?Jorge Bolano
Wilfried Dalmat
Valeri Bojinov
Mirko Vucinic
?Ernesto Javier Chevanton

Modena:
?Diomansy Kamará
Ayodele Makinwa
*Fabio Vignaroli
*Nicola Amoruso
*Massimo Marazzina

Parma:
*Alessandro Rosina
?Ianis Zicu
Domenico Morfeo
*Alberto Gilardino
*Benito Carbone
*Marco Marchionni
*Daniele Degano
*Fabrizio Cammarata

Perugia:
Dario Hubner
Jay Bothrod
**Fabrizio Ravanelli
Saadi al-Gadhafi
?Juan Martin Turchi
*Francesco Zerbini
?Marcelo Zalayeta
*Maurizio Baciocchi

Reggina:
*Roberti Stellone
*Emiliano Bonazzoli
*Stefano Dall'acqua
*David Di Michele

AS Roma:
**Vincenzo Montella
**Francesco Totti
**Antionio Cassano
*Gaetano D'agostino
John Carew
**Marco Delvecchio

Sampdoria:
*Giacomo Ciprani
*Fabio Bazzani
*Francesco Flachi
Atsushi Tanagisawa
*Francis Ze
?Antonio Floro Flores
Thomas Herve Job Iyolk
*Fabian Valtolina

Siena:
Tore André Flo
**Enrico Chiesa
*Nicola Ventola

Udinese:
Carsten Jancker
*Dino Fava Passaro
*Vincenzo Iaquinta
----------------------
That is 58/101 that is born Italian. Of these 58, 11 have played or are playing in the national team, so that means that a 47 of them are still avaible for training. Also, don't forget the '?', it means that up to 72 of 101 strikers in the Italian league could be Italian.


Now, on the other subject, if he had lost his good play, why would Brescia keep him for four years. I mean, it is not like Maniero, Del Nero, Gonzales, Alberti or Schopp are bad strikers. No, it is because he is good.

And if we say that the italian squad will use these strikers together with 3 goalkeepers, 8 defenders, and 6 midfielders:
Vieri
Del Piero
Inzaghi
Totti

that would leave Italy with two fresh spots, perfect for Baggio and maybe Di Vaio, Montella, or Delvecchio if he gets well soon to join up.

[EDIT]Damn, I just realized that I write more in this discussion than I do in the debates in AoDA. [/EDIT]

 

Well, i still think you can't start early enough with bringing in fresh blood. Let the young talents ripe, like they do with Ajax. The average age of this year's team that featured in the CL was 19. No other team in the world has such a young squad. They didn't get far this time, but if they manage to keep this group together (which will be hard enough as it is, because Milan, Inter and Juve are already preparing to offer most of them contracts) Europe hasn't heard the last of them. Youth has the future, Baggio should be wise enough to step back himself and make room for the next generation.

 

Of course. He have said that he will not push Trappatoni to put him in the squad, but if he gets nominated he will join the squad in Portugal.